Incarnae
by Kyrial Halcoryn
Summary: Szayel Aporro Granz never really died. Uryuu Ishida never returned to the Living World. Szayel/fem!Ishida in 100 words  mostly  per post. Intended as a series of shorts. Actually complete now. It's a miracle!
1. Eye Candy

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

* * *

He pulls himself clear of the wreckage of a human body. It will repair itself in time, he knows, and for this reason he pays absolutely no attention to the ruined form of the girl that will never wake up. She's pretty for aesthetic purposes, of course, but that's all. Eye candy; the girl who will always serve as the vessel for his reincarnation should the need ever arise.

The liquid begins to drain away from the container as he hits the button.

Szayel takes his first step, newborn, into Las Noches, the fluid still dripping from his naked form.


	2. Doldrum

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

* * *

He's bored.

Of course, this part of Las Noches is completely separate from the rest, and therefore safe from destruction. Still, it bores him to sit idle without purpose, and the fact he had to allow himself to be defeated by a mere shinigami galls him to the bone. Even that orange-haired hybrid would have been better.

_More interesting to experiment on, certainly._

He will have his revenge, in time... but even he is not insane enough to launch an attack upon Soul Society just yet.

"Szayel-sama?" Verona approaches.

"What?"

She points.

He smirks.

"It seems we have a gift." 


	3. Broken

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

* * *

The boy is practically dead by the time he gets there; ribs shattered by blunt-force trauma. It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to remove every last shard of bone from his vital organs, and even then his heart is so riddled with punctures he doubts it will ever work again. It doesn't take too much effort to attach a secondary one.

The only minor complication is that Szayel doesn't generally keep organs for transplants, and the one he created was something of a novelty, an experiment grown from Arrancar tissue.

His own.

It still cracks him up.


	4. Glass Toy

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

Three days for the boy's body to recover sufficiently for Szayel to make changes.

_Far too fragile. How am I meant to do anything with a body like that?_ he laments.

The Quincy still hasn't regained consciousness since he was brought back into Szayel's domain. Briefly he ponders as to whether the boy suffered brain damage – but no, all scans and all tests he can run with his more-limited-than-before-laboratory _(and it's all the brat's fault in the first place, he deserves it) _show that Uryuu Ishida is completely fine.

Szayel sighs.

The boy won't appreciate his art while awake, apparently.


	5. Flawed

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

One week.

The brat fascinates him. Szayel pulls him apart, unconscious, replaces every single piece of bone with something lighter that won't break or shatter. Takes note of every minor detail and imperfection on the boy's body, particularly the twin scars – one almost upon the position of the original heart and the other a wound that would have impaled his stomach cleanly. Both infused with reishi. _The latter from a particularly powerful arrancar, perhaps, _he thinks, before cross-referencing and finding no appropriate Espada to match to the signature.

He wonders briefly what manner of creature his hollowification might result in.


	6. The Pursuit of Perfection

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

The result of his next experiment (hormonal therapy combined with accelerant and regressant) is actually successful, for once, which irks him. It's almost as if the Quincy is _deliberately_ surviving while unconscious just to spite him. Or perhaps it has something more to do with the hollow particles now spreading throughout the body, increasing the ability to regenerate rapidly…

He glances at her sleeping form.

_Well… at least it's a _visible_ improvement on previously. I _am _an artist, after all._

The edges of his lips quirk upwards into something of a smile.

_And I'll prove that pathetic shinigami scientist wrong._


	7. Awaken

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

He's sitting there when she wakes.

It takes a fraction of a second for his attention to be caught by the slight flutter of the eyelashes. Her blue eyes are muzzy, somewhat unfocused despite his adjustment to the lenses.

"What – " she begins, just before a frown crosses her face, her hand comes up to her eyes and she looks at Szayel and focuses properly.

She stares at him for about five seconds straight.

He raises an eyebrow.

_She hasn't tried to kill me yet. Evidently her mental faculties have not __yet__ returned._

He regrets it when she hits him.


	8. Retribution

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

Ishida, when she realised _exactly _what had happened, did her level best to kill Szayel. In fairness to her, she _did _manage to land a slap as well as a knee to the groin. Kami knows what might have happened if Lumina had not had the presence of mind to stab her with a sedative and render her unconscious. He shudders at the thought.

_Best to keep her asleep, for the time being.

* * *

_

Lumina wonders at the smile on his master's lips, but says nothing in the knowledge that he is not as expendable as the test subject just yet.


	9. Jealous

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

Envy.

Verona is familiar with the term and its definition, of course; her master created her to be _intelligent_, after all. The sensation itself, however, is unfamiliar. Arrancar do not have hearts.

She sees the way her master watches over the boy-turned-girl, and the emotion twists at her gut at the effect the Quincy is having, even if her own master cannot see it. She must warn him of such dangers; it is her duty, after all.

He laughs in her face openly when she suggests the girl is humanizing them, punishes her.

* * *

Later, he wonders if she was right. 


	10. Flipside

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

The next time the girl wakes, her eyes are the blue-black of a hollow, calmer as she gazes thoughtfully at him through the glass. Evidently _that_ aspect has taken hold of her body. The navy hair, too, has faded to pale silvery-blue.

She traces circles on the glass, watching him. It's unnerving.

"What is your name?"

Head cocks to one side. A slight smirk crosses her mouth.

"Gin."

The smile of a different demon comes to mind. It seems appropriate enough for the girl who sits before him.

"Uryuu Ishida… was never particularly imaginative when it came to naming things."


	11. Caution

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

Whenever one of them will go to sleep, the other will take control over the body. The pattern fascinates him; each one will take control for precisely fifteen hours at a time, no more and no less, despite the fact that there is no way of measuring time within the little cell.

"Tell me," he asks (twice) "why do you share the body?"

Uryuu makes no reply to the question, of course.

Gin responds that they have reached a temporary agreement to cooperate – for the time being, at least.

Szayel decides to increase his security system's strength.

Just in case.


	12. Escape

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
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**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

His alarms fail him.

By the time he wakes and notices the growing lack of camera feeds, it is too late for his fraccion.

He turns to face her. It's unclear as to precisely which of the two is in control; one eye is blackened, the other is clear as azure light blooms around her form.

He reacts quickly, grabbing a sedative as the light expands outwards. There's a strange tingling sensation as she backhands him, but the injection goes in, and the light goes out as she crumples.

Szayel stares at the sphere of destruction, and his missing hand.


	13. Devoured

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

It's a clean wound, cleaner than anything a blade could possibly make. It takes him about an hour to successfully regrow a new left hand, and he grits his teeth at the pain as he inspects the damage.

Most of the building remains intact, yet the cell he placed her in has a clean hole through it, and the equipment (and, indeed, walls and floor) in her path have been consumed by her ability.

Like his fraccion.

Suddenly, he begins to laugh, almost hysterically.

He has seen a glimpse of the impossible perfection, and it _terrifies_ him beyond all reasoning.


	14. Picking up the Pieces

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Also, 300 words in one shot instead of 100! Oh, the horror... but it wouldn't read very well otherwise.

* * *

He can't bring himself to kill her.

_It would be a waste of my work, _he tells himself. Besides, there is nothing else left alive.

"Wake up."

She stirs. It's the human this time. Uryuu stares before the light ignites once more –

"Stop."

Her muscles lock in place involuntarily as the light retreats back into her body.

"Good girl. Don't move," and his new-grown fingers run through her hair.

"What – " she begins, before her mouth clamps shut involuntarily.

"Better."

He smiles pleasantly while she continues to glare at him, fury in her eyes at his control over her body.

* * *

_Why didn't you kill me?_

"You decimated my entire building and obliterated all my fraccion. I think it's only appropriate that you give me _something_ in return for all the time I spent putting your pathetic body back together."

Fury blazes in her eyes.

"Your heart gave out while you were unconscious… so, being the charitable, foresighted person I am – " A smirk crosses his face. " – I gave you a spare, since I didn't need it. Part of myself… in you."

Her eyes widen.

"You understand, don't you?"

He leans forward to whisper in her ear.

"You're _mine_ now."

* * *

"Stand."

A command, not a request. She obeys, even as he feels her resistance, sees the muscle jumping in her jaw at the effort.

"But… I really can't leave you like this," he muses thoughtfully. "One day you might perhaps slip your bonds, and who knows what might happen? We can't have that."

He hesitates for a second, stroking her cheek, ignoring her silent fury.

_It's necessary,_ he reassures himself.

His hand comes to a rest upon her forehead.

"Forget. Forget _everything._"

She convulses under his grasp, shuddering as blood drips from her nose.

Finally, she slumps, still once more. 


	15. Case Closed

**Incarnae (centesimal)  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please? :)

* * *

_She was nothing. A Quincy. A human._

Szayel scowls at himself in the mirror.

_Then… why does it feel as if I've killed her?_

_More importantly, why do I even _care?

The underground laboratory suddenly seems very empty as he tidies up, repairs some of the damage she's to avoid the body slumped in the corner…

Still no heartbeat from the implant or the original. He checks, just to make sure, for a pulse, equipment malfunctions, brain activity, everything and anything for a sign of life, even a mirror.

His fingers hesitate above the keyboard.

_Subject 4152: deceased._


	16. Restart

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

Did you really think I'd give you an ending like that**...  
**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please?

* * *

To get attached to a test subject is patently ridiculous.

The monitor is still silent where he has left it there. He can't bring himself to place the body in cold storage like all the others, and he hasn't been able to restart either heart.

Szayel Apporo Granz is not a sentimental man. He knows this well.

Nonetheless, he sits by the body. Perhaps he will be able to do something with it – clone her, perhaps – but it would still miss that essential spark.

_Be-be-be-beep_

A four-beat rhythm.

He stares at the monitor, suddenly alive again, then at the girl.


	17. Second Chances

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please?

* * *

It's another day before she wakes properly, but her vitals are still reading strong. Evidently her will to live is stronger than he anticipated. He is there when her eyes open.

With a tranquiliser, of course.

(Nobody would ever call Szayel an _idiot,_ after all.)

* * *

The expression upon her face is far too innocent.

"Who are you?"

It hurts to hear it – _but then, isn't this what you asked for?_

"You don't know?"

She frowns. "Szayel…"

"You remember, then."

"I remember that, but…" She hesitates. "Then who am I?"

He ruffles her hair a little, an affectionate gesture.

"You're Uryuu."


	18. Deceit

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore in later chapters. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please?

* * *

"What happened to me?"

He sits down next to her.

"You had an accident. Head trauma. Evidently your memory hasn't fully recovered yet." He tries to suppress the mild feeling of guilt at the lie as her expression clouds over.

"I… see." She takes a breath, before adding, "I apologise for inconveniencing you."

"It wasn't a problem," he said dryly. "Besides, I seem to find myself short of hands at the moment. You can assist me in repayment, if you wish."

She hesitates. "Do… do you know who I was before?"

"I'll help you find out."

It hurts to lie.


	19. Prodigy

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please?  
As a side note, I'm planning on writing a rather more in-depth fem!Uryuu story, but would quite appreciate it if somebody could volunteer to have a look through my progress so far :)

* * *

She makes an excellent assistant.

Uryuu is considerably brighter than he had anticipated, and fast to learn new skills and information, although he isn't entirely sure about whether she is learning the information or not, since she tells him that the knowledge is already there and that only the memories are absent from her mind.

The frustration on her face when she tells him this is plain to see. He wishes he could give her life back. Or even just _a _life, some memories to leave her with some sense of self.

He knows what it is to lose that.


	20. Moral

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Pretty please?  
As a side note, I'm planning on writing a rather more in-depth fem!Uryuu story, but would quite appreciate it if somebody could volunteer to have a look through my progress so far :)

* * *

The shinigami lies on the slab. His body is almost broken, but not quite.

Aizen made it explicit when he was ruler that the shinigami were to be left untouched, but he isn't here anymore. Szayel doesn't know who won or lost, and doesn't really care.

"Please… stop." His voice is a raspy murmur.

Uryuu turns to him, the pain clear on her face.

"I'm sorry, Szayel-sama. I… I can't do this."

Her head is bowed.

"Punish me… as you see fit."

He stares.

_Is this really… how you see me?_

_No…_

She watches as he turns around and leaves.


	21. Chapter 21

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks go to the anonymous Mary Lou who's responsible for most of the reviews :)

* * *

He lets the shinigami go.

The incident isn't talked about afterwards. Instead, he trains her. The shinigami Kurotsuchi shows up on his cameras once, and Szayel isn't one to take chances.

She knows little initially about hollow abilities such as cero and bala beyond the pure basics, which is understandable. However, when he gets round to teaching her the more advanced peculiarities, he is forcibly reminded of her ridiculously sharp learning curve.

"Enough," he says, when a bala he directed at her returns in his direction, bright azure and four times as strong.

"Was I satisfactory?"

_If Kurotsuchi could see…_


	22. Mercy

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks go to the anonymous Mary Lou who's responsible for most of the reviews :)

* * *

She has already exceeded him in combat. Not that he was particularly good at fighting fairly, but even with his little tricks and secrets he hasn't told her about, he's certain any fight between the two of them would end in ten seconds flat.

He moves on to more interesting things, curious about the ability she displayed that killed his fraccion. The name she comes up with – _Hougyokou,_ Breakdown Orb – seems appropriate, given the potential of the blue sphere to destroy anything.

Nonetheless, she is too merciful to be a good fighter, he thinks, and silently thanks Kami for that.


	23. Vitae

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks go to the anonymous Mary Lou who's responsible for most of the reviews :)

* * *

When Szayel walks into the room, he isn't entirely sure he isn't dreaming.

Uryuu sits, enraptured by the impossible bright-blue flowers sprouting up from the solid floor of his laboratory as what seem to be fireflies dance around the room.

"Uryuu?"

She turns around, startled.

"Szayel-sama!"

The life sparks out, vanishes. He blinks.

"What… was that?"

"I apologise, Szayel-sama… I was trying to experiment with my abilities, but for some reason I can't get any other colour than blue – "

"You… made that?" he asks faintly.

"Yes." She hesitates. "Well… I missed flowers." Uryuu blushes slightly, looking down.

He sighs.


	24. Worth

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks go to the anonymous Mary Lou who's responsible for most of the reviews :)

* * *

Szayel really doesn't know why he's doing this.

The Living World is far too noisy for his liking, and yet he's still here for a pointless venture. The experience is still interesting to him, though; it's been a while since he was here… even if the humans' ridiculously slow vehicles _do_ stink of pollutants and poison.

An appropriate shop is easy to find, however, and the object is appropriate enough, after all.

(Besides, it's worth it to see the look on her face when he comes back with the amaryllis blooms, because the smile on her face is all _his_.)


	25. To Sleep, Perchance

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Reviews are loved ^_^

* * *

_Why can't I remember?_

She remembers, sometimes.

The images come in flashes; needle and thread passing through cloth, a young boy with bright-orange hair chatting to a dark-haired girl as she watched with a strange feeling in her chest, a young woman with auburn hair smiling broadly and passing her a lunchbox –

_"Ishida-kun looked lonely, so I thought I might make you one too! It has black bean and red bean and kaya paste pancakes – "_

– slipping away –

**NO! **a part of her screamed. **This isn't right, wake _up,_ damn it! Remember!

* * *

**

She forgot the dreams when she woke again.


	26. Interlude: Fairy Tale

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Reviews are loved ^_^  
And yes, this one isn't 100 words again. It isn't part of the story exactly. I don't remember if this is an actual story I heard once and abridged, or whether I made it up. If you do know if it's an actual story and its name, please tell me. It's been bugging me.

* * *

_"A boy caught a broken bird in his hands, caged it._

_But the bird was something alive, a wild creature that can never be truly tame._

_Over time, the bird recovered and could fly again, and strained to be free…_

* * *

_"So the boy opened the cage in the spring with regret in his heart and let the bird fly away from him once more, though he was tempted to keep it in the cage with him forever._

_

* * *

"Time passed, and the boy had almost forgotten…"_


	27. Heartbreak

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Thank you for the reviews from last chapter :)

* * *

In the middle of her training, she collapses.

Szayel is experienced enough to know the difference between a minor ailment and a major problem; he's fixed up most of the Espada enough times, since Yammy Rialgo had the unfortunate habit of killing his healers whenever he had been beaten to a pulp in a battle.

Her body is rejecting the foreign tissue; the heart transplant. The other one is completely recovered from the damage, but –

_If I take it out… she will no longer be under my compulsion._

He's under no illusions as to what would happen.

_Or she'll die._


	28. Chapter 28

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided). Thank you for the reviews!

* * *

She is stable, unconscious and breathing calmly under anaesthesia.

It doesn't take much work to remove the heart; he reopens the old wound in the same place to take it out. The original is working perfectly well, but her immune system has targeted the one he gave her and the damage on it already shows. Whether or not she can readapt to the situation, he doesn't know any more. _Probably, _he decides, and closes everything up once more.

Whether or not Uryuu can forgive him is a different matter entirely.

Knowing her, the best he can hope for is survival.


	29. Uncaged

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

Okay, you can hit me now for not updating sooner. I got caught up with another Uryuu-centric fic... and forgot about this until now. Also, my 100 words somehow turned into 200...

* * *

From the moment she opens her eyes, the difference is visible.

"Uryuu."

Her eyes flicker downwards to her wrists – probably checking for restraints, he thinks, and he's a little hurt before he remembers that yes, she _does_ have more-than-sufficient reason to believe that he might do such a thing.

Anger. Fear. Wariness. Doubt. Confusion. A mixture of emotions play across her face briefly before it settles into an impassive mask.

"You took it out. Why?"

He hesitates. "It was killing you. Your body is not compatible with arrancar tissue for long."

"I see." If anything, her expression is colder now.

* * *

There isn't anything he can say that will be sufficient to compensate for what he's done. The lady and the demon may not love for long; it was foolish to form any kind of bond with a living human.

There is no cage that he can build that will hold her alive. Both of them know this now.

He gets up, opens the door, says, with an effort, "You can leave if you wish."

She frowns. For a brief second, it looks as if she's about to speak -

Blue light flickers, and her form vanishes completely from his sight.


	30. Lifeless 1

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

Thanks to reader feedback, the fic The World In Black And White will be continued shortly, for whoever was interested in it. ^_^ Reviews are appreciated!

* * *

Szayel is quickly reminded of how _large_ Las Noches is with Uryuu's absence.

There's nothing else alive in the ruins to concern him. The Sexta Espada, Grimmjow, recovered enough to leave soon after his fight, along with a child-sized Neliel Tu Oderschvank and her two loyal retainers. He hadn't been in any condition to attempt to stop any of them at the time, and had had no particular desire to do so in the first place.

He briefly wonders where they are – _probably attempted to go to Karakura Town, given their fascination with the hybrid._

Perhaps Uryuu would return there –


	31. Lifeless 2

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida eventually (mainly onesided).

Thanks to reader feedback, the fic The World In Black And White will be continued shortly, for whoever was interested in it. ^_^ Reviews are appreciated!

* * *

She is long gone now.

He still hasn't figured out how she managed to vanish in such a manner. He checked the security logs – none of the doors were opened, none of the cameras registered her movement.

_Another mystery to remain unsolved, it seems._

Szayel vaguely considers the possibility of a replica, before dismissing it out of hand; any attempt at such a thing would be imperfect by its nature, a mockery of the original. To do so would be a disgrace to her memory…

_No._

* * *

The sensation is a little like that of becoming a hollow, that irreplaceable loss –


	32. Uncaged, Redux

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida (mainly onesided).

This story is drawing closer to the end... thanks to everyone who's been following and reviewing, particularly the anonymous Mary Lou. I appreciate all your feedback.

* * *

He resolves himself to take action once more.

_"Am I really the one who's caged here?"_

The inner hollow's words – _Gin's_ words – echo in his mind.

He's been complacent, staying in ruins of Las Noches when there's so much more out there. The Living World, for one thing… but so soon after the Winter War would be dangerous, even if the shinigami were mostly dead. The captain of Twelfth Division was still alive –

Mayuri, yes… he still owed _that_ man a debt.

Szayel's lip curls.

A quiet beep.

_What? A reiatsu anomaly?_

Frowning, he decides to investigate, Quincy momentarily forgotten.


	33. Unshackled, Almost

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida (mainly onesided).

* * *

It's cold outside.

Black boots crunch across the pale sand as he begins to regret his decision. For the first time since he became an Espada, he is reminded of how _large_ Hueco Mundo is. The desert stretches out endlessly.

A faint blot is just visible in the distance, just on the horizon. It's impossible to tell how far away it is, the sheer vastness of the desert throwing off all senses of perception.

Despite the fact that there is no-one around, he can't help but suppress a shudder.

Shouldering his supplies, he ignores his niggling agoraphobia and keeps walking.


	34. Life in Death

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida (mainly onesided).

* * *

He isn't sure how long he's been walking, but the _view_…

Life in Hueco Mundo.

The old crystal trees he is familiar with have grown, looming tall above him and in vibrant emerald leaf as they've never been before.

The growth is spreading, he notices – new shoots coming up from underneath the sand, fragile, delicate things moving at an accelerated rate as if to make up for the eternity of death here.

There is only one person who might be capable of such a thing.

_"I missed flowers…"_

He stiffens at the sudden appearance of a familiar reiatsu signature.

Kurotsuchi.


	35. Coup de Grace 1

**Incarnae (centesimal)**

**Warning:** Rated T for caution due to not particularly detailed experimentation, violence and a little gore. Szayel/fem!Ishida (mainly onesided).

**A/N: **Exams went... not very well. Gah. This is the penultimate update... the final one will be following relatively shortly. You may now poke my voodoo doll for cliffhangers, if you can persuade Szayel to make one for you...

* * *

The man is concealing himself, and it isn't hard to hide in this place. The trees have grown thickly enough for their leaves to obscure the sky, and the plants underfoot are in flower.

A figure lies, distant, crumpled on the ground.

_It's her, _he thinks. He doesn't need to look to be able to distinguish her reiatsu.

"My, my… I didn't expect to see you here."

The voice is just as grating as he remembers.

"I suppose your death was too much to hope for, although it irked me that I never managed to add you to my collection…"

* * *

He can't see or sense the shinigami. _Probably using some kind of cloaking device_, he thinks, and curses himself for not making better preparations or bringing something similar.

"And such a fascinating phenomenon… I wonder how such a thing could be possible?"

"Why are you here?"

"Are there some laws forbidding me from entering Hueco Mundo? It's not as if there are any others of your kind left, after all."

Szayel takes the opportunity to leap, landing in a crouch on a tree-branch.

"You really think you can hide yourself from me again?"

He turns his head frantically, searching.

Nothing.

* * *

The laughter rings out from below.

He makes his way closer to the fallen body, trying not to rustle the leaves and concealing his reiatsu as far as is possible. There's enough ambient reiatsu for it to muffle out his own signature, with the life blooming around him.

A flash of movement at the corner of his eye. Instinctively, he shoots a bala at it, only to put a hole through a butterfly. Black, the species shinigami use for Senkaimon.

On the bright side, he's cut off Mayuri's means of departure.

On the downside, this means nothing if he dies.

* * *

"You know… I did initially come here for a rather_ fascinating_ specimen whose reiatsu I picked up quite recently."

Szayel freezes.

"One of your escaped pets?"

_No, no, no -_

"Although I do have to admit… if nothing else, at least you have an eye for aesthetics. Even if you are hopelessly deluded." The unseen voice is mocking.

He moves.

The needle punctures his hierro painfully, as the light-bending kido finally falls away from Mayuri's body, revealing the caped shinigami scientist grinning at him.

_What… all this time… I didn't sense him. Damn…_

He slumps, a marionette with cut strings.

* * *

"Don't bother escaping. That drug is eating your reiatsu right now. I can't imagine the experience would be particularly pleasant."

The ignominy of being carried by the shinigami is something Szayel would normally protest about with a bala to the face, at least. Regrettably, he isn't in any position to complain.

"It's only right that you repay me, after all… particularly since Nemu suffered an accident."

________________

_____Accident?_

"She managed to fool herself that she was in_ love_, of all things. There wasn't anything I could do to dampen emotional responses further, though… even _you_ would make a more suitable assistant."

* * *

Szayel shifts groggily in the cart. From his position, he can see Mayuri approaching Uryuu's unconscious body _(and it's all over now)._

The shinigami bends over.

"Hm… considerable traces of hollow reiatsu. Another arrancar?"

Something started beeping.

"Impossible!"

He could hear the shinigami clicking away frantically on some device or other.

"You let him _live?_ After everything? You really are wasteful… how disappointing." There was a sigh. "It really does pain me to let any of my specimens escape, though… and if I have the brat, then I can finally close the folder on the Quincy once and for all..."


	36. Coup de Grace 2

**This fic...** really did take inordinately long to finish. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the ending, I had to redo it several times since the first two ended up being overly soppy and not to my liking. The third was ridiculously depressing, and the fourth was the one that didn't entirely make sense. I'm not sure whether it worked out okay.

This fic also has the minor honour of being the longest-running fic I've done, if only by dint of my writer's block. I thought the ending would be a lot easier to write than it was, but in the end all my original plans got thrown out. For 8 months. So yeah. Don'thitmeplease?

(Also, 100 words went out the window.)

* * *

Szayel waits.

"What… the reiatsu… a _clone?_"

_You're slow, Mayuri…_

"What is this?" There is genuine curiosity in the voice now, and Szayel listens in absentmindedly as the feeling begins to return to his muscles. They're sore as hell right now, but he can feel _something _now, at least.

A butterfly perches on his nose.

"Get off," he mumbles. _Hands are still dead – no swatting it, _he thinks irritably before realising there is a butterfly, _here_, in Hueco Mundo, a bright shade of sapphire.

"Hello again, Kurotsuchi-san."

The voice is icy-cold, exactly as he remembers it, and makes him shudder.

_She came…_

"Don't fool yourself into thinking this is out of any misguided affection… I merely loathe him more than I do you."

"So… evidently he did modify your pathetic body, from the tone of your voice… I must say it's certainly more pleasing to the ear."

The sound of a blade being unsheathed. "Rip, Ashisogi Jizu."

"Let's see how pretty your screams are, shall we?"

A volley of arrows fly towards the shinigami at high speed. Mayuri's sword moves swiftly, deflecting most of the energy attacks away where they impact harmlessly with the ground.

The assault increases in intensity, until it stops abruptly with Uryuu grasping onto Mayuri's shoulder, hand poised for a killing blow and the blade buried deep in her gut.

Blue eyes widen as she crumples, letting out a breath –

Her body disintegrates around the sword quite quickly.

"Tch. And even with your modifications…. She was still too pathetic to last long enough to be of interest. Oh well… it's hardly a loss, after all."

_Uryuu can't be dead._

The little specks of blue light, the spiritron which had once been part of her body rapidly fade away before his eyes.

_No… she could regenerate. Such a simple wound wouldn't kill her. She survived a sword to the stomach even before._

He feels numb. Empty.

_This isn't the way she should die._

"I wonder whether you're even of any worth to me. If that was really the best you could do – "

"_I'm not gone yet._"

"What… but… how… A clone?"

_No. He really… did hit her… that blow would have killed most people._

"You of all people should know. After all, you performed enough experiments on the Quincy, didn't you?"

"Come out!"

"The primary ability of the Quincy is to manipulate spiritron. You saw the so-called 'final form'. I was capable of breaking down the buildings in the Seireitei to use as my power."

Mayuri retreats to the cart with a body slung casually over his shoulder, rummaging desperately through the compartments for equipment – _nothing without his preparations, evidently._

"What makes you think that a living body would be so different? Granz taught me sufficiently about the human body. Being able to replicate it wasn't all that difficult."

He _knows_ that's a blatant lie. Szayel has seen how fragile a spiritual body can be, almost as fragile as a living human's, and knows that the complexity is equal, if not even greater. Reconstructing such a thing isn't an easy task.

_But why –_

Szayel's eyes widen at the appearance of the apparent corpse Mayuri is holding.

It's _almost_ identical to that of Uryuu. The only visible difference from this angle is the pale silvery-blue hair.

"A mind, though… isn't something so easy to create."

The arm of the not-quite-so-empty body is suddenly at Mayuri's throat, a flickering sphere of darkest navy at his throat.

"Luckily I had one spare…"

Szayel's eyes close just as the dark light (although such a thing seems a contradiction) flares.

There's a slightly sickening noise, visceral, something going through flesh.

"You always talk too much." The voice is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, a slight double-echo to the refrain that signifies hollow.

"Sorry. Bad habit."

"Tch. As if I care now. Besides, I got the head, that's all that matters. He isn't coming back."

Fingers brush against his skin.

"You're still alive."

One eyelid cracks open. It's the original. Well, maybe the original. Not the hollow; the eyes are the precise shade of sapphire, rather than that black/electric blue.

There was a contemptuous scoff. "Leave it. It's hardly as if – "

"Don't go," he manages through numb lips.

There is something strange about the expression on Ishida's face, and for a second he almost thinks she will leave, letting him rot. Kami only knows he deserves it. He has led a far from blameless life, after all – she knows this best.

"…I think I'll just stay a little longer."

* * *

"…_until the return of the spring."_


End file.
